NATIONAL CEMETERY

Civil War Philadelphia National Cemetery Recipient At the time of the Civil War, Philadelphia was the second-largest American The dead were initially buried in several locations that One Civil War recipient of the Medal of Honor is city. Its factories supported the Union war effort by producing everything collectively made up the original Philadelphia National buried in the cemetery: Gen. Galusha Pennypacker, from blankets to gunboats. In less than three months, its navy yards Cemetery. The War Department maintained lots in seven 97th Infantry. produced the sloop-of-war U.S.S. Tuscarora. The ironclad U.S.S. New city cemeteries—Glenwood, Lafayette, Lebanon, Mount Ironsides, which saw action at Charleston, South Carolina, and at Fort Fisher Moriah, Odd-Fellows, United American Mechanics, and Wilmington, North Carolina, was also built in Philadelphia shipyards. and Woodlands. Lots in Rural Cemetery in Chester, and Whitehall and Bristol cemeteries, also received military burials. By the early 1880s, Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs chose to consolidate these dead into a single national cemetery. After the War Department acquired more than 13 acres in northwest Philadelphia in 1885, an estimated 1,500 Union and Confederate remains were reinterred here.

The cemetery was designed in the rural style. Curving roads and generous plantings created a park-like environment. A large Italianate house acquired with the property served as the superintendent’s residence for fifty years. It was razed in 1934.

Gen. Galusha Pennypacker. History of the Ninety-Seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, 1875. Ward in Union Volunteer Hospital, a private hospital in Philadelphia, c. 1862. Library of Congress.

Thousands of Union soldiers passed through the city on the way to the First bestowed in 1863, it is the front. Local organizations provided lodging, food, laundry, and bathing highest award for military valor facilities. Later, the city opened hospitals for soldiers, as did the federal in the U.S. Armed Services. For government. Ailing troops were treated at Broad Street, Christian Street, acts above and beyond the call Citizens Volunteer, Cuyler, Haddington, Islington Lane, McClellan, Officer, of duty, 1,522 individuals who Civil War Army Medal South Street, Summit House, and Turner’s Lane hospitals. of Honor. Gettysburg served in the Civil War received National Military Park. Satterlee and Mower hospitals were the largest. Satterlee General Hospital, the medal. Pennypacker earned opened 1862, could accommodate 3,000 patients. Mower General Hospital, it for bravery in the January 1865 assault on Fort opened 1863, held 4,000 patients. During the war more than 157,000 Fisher, North Carolina. Afterward he was promoted, soldiers, sailors, and Confederate prisoners were treated in Philadelphia and at 20 became the youngest Union general. He View of cemetery with lodge, 1903; the gate was replaced in 1940. National Archives and hospitals. Many died from disease or wounds. Records Administration. died in 1916 (Officers Section, Grave 175).

U.S. Department of Veterans A˜airs To learn more about benefits and programs National Cemetery Administration for Veterans and families, visit www.va.gov